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June 23, 2005
The Rebate Debate Raises Hackles in Europe
Carsten Volkery, writing from Berlin for Spiegel Online, told Spiegel readers "Whatever you think of [British Prime Minister Tony] Blair, "you have to admit that he is pretty good at getting himself out there. Currently it is his stance on reforming the EU budget which is raising hackles -- especially in Germany, where a government paper has revealed that Gerhard Schroeder's government is anything but happy with Blair's newfound reformist stance." Volkery added: The German government has defended current European Union agricultural policies against criticisms from British Prime Minister Tony Blair. "Britain is currently flogging the myth that an allegedly money-wasting common agricultural policy is the central hurdle to a reduction of the British rebate," an internal government working paper obtained by Spiegel Online on Thursday [June 23, 2005] states. "Those are arguments from the 1980s.
"There have been a great deal of fundamental changes since 1984, the government argues, when then-British prime minister Margaret Thatcher fought for the rebate," Volkery noted. "Britain, for example, is no longer a poor nation, but rather the EU's fourth wealthiest. In addition, since 1992 Europe's agricultural policy has undergone a "shift in direction." Here's more.
Posted by Munir Umrani at June 23, 2005 07:20 PM
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